“Come on,” said Annaliese. “Let’s go inside. Then we can all introduce ourselves properly.”
The two assembled groups headed over to the Big Dog restaurant and climbed a short flight of steps. The door was locked when they got there, but it seemed like something the other group were used to by now. Shawcross put through the window with a metal pole and cleared away the jagged shards from the edges of the frame.
“Hope nobody minds climbing,” he said. “Doors aren’t getting as much use these days.”
Everyone hopped up onto the window ledge, one after another, and funnelled through into the restaurant. It was very similar to how the Rainforest Café had been at the bottom of the hill, but a little better maintained.
“Now, I haven’t been in here for a while,” Shawcross said. “The amusement park and zoo is separate to the manor house of which I am in charge, but, if memory serves me, there should be a soda fountain somewhere inside that we can use while there’s still power. We should also gather as much water from the kitchen as we can.”
“Now that you mention it,” said Nick. “How come you guys still have power? It went off down below.”
“A generator,” Annaliese explained. Shawcross said there’s one that can power the park for a couple of days if the grid goes off. Tell you the truth, I didn’t even know it had kicked in. The power’s out everywhere else, then, I take it?”
Nick shrugged. “Not sure. It certainly went off down below. It set the alarms off.”
“So that’s what that was. I thought I heard something last night.”
Shawcross went and leant up against the bar. “Shall we get the introductions out of the way? Then we can get on to more important matters.”
“Okay,” Nick said. “I’ve already introduced myself, but this big guy here is Jan, who, like I said, has already saved my life once. His companion is Renee, but he doesn’t talk. This is Pauline…” Nick continued to point around the group. “Cassie, Eve, and-”
“Dave,” the man answered for himself. “I’m the one that got us all together in the first place.”
“Well done,” Shawcross said. “I am responsible for our own little group. You already know myself and Anna, but may I introduce you to Mike, Michelle, Greg and Alan. There were more of us at one point but, well…”
Everybody waved hello.
“Should we be asking if anybody has any skills?” Eve asked. “That’s what they do in the movies, right?”
Shawcross scratched his chin. “I suppose so. Annaliese would be our medic, for want of a better word.”
“I’m a vet,” she said, “but I know my way around human tackle, too, more or less.”
“I’m a builder,” said the moustached man called Alan. “Retired.”
“I’m an accountant,” said Michelle, an attractive blonde woman. “So none of you need to worry about your tax returns.”
Everyone giggled.
“Anybody else do anything useful?” Shawcross asked.
There was silence.
“Well, it doesn’t seem that we’re in a great position to restart civilisation, so let’s just hope things improve.”
Some hope, thought Nick as he took in his new surroundings. He wondered how long the dingy restaurant would end up being his new home.
Don’t think I’ll get the sport channels here.
Shawcross pushed off from the bar and headed for Jan and Renee. “The cellar is this way,” he said. “Are you both ready to settle in?”
Jan shrugged. “After you, Warden.”
Nick felt wrong as he watched Jan and Renee get lead away to their imprisonment. He understood where the other group were coming from – he’d felt the same way about the prisoners not long ago – but he now felt like he owed the men.
They were watching our backs the whole time from Dash.
“Can we bring them food and water every day?” Nick asked.
“Of course,” said Annaliese. “It’s just a precaution. We’re not going to treat them like animals.”